BOXING | Japanese Welterweight Sewon Okazawa Aiming to Bring Hope to a Region Devastated by Torrential Rains

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Japanese welterweight Sewon Okazawa would love nothing greater than to win a gold medal on the Tokyo Olympics and produce some pleasure to his followers in a area of Japan that was devastated by torrential rains one 12 months in the past.

Born in Yamagata Prefecture to a Japanese mom and Ghanian father, the 25-year-old Okazawa has a report of 16 wins and three losses as an newbie fighter and is one among Japan’s medal hopes in boxing.

“The Olympics are a once-in-a-lifetime alternative,” Okazawa mentioned in a latest on-line interview. “I’m in good situation, I’m extra excited than nervous. It’s essential on such a giant stage {that a} star emerges, and I need to put in that kind of efficiency.”

Okazawa started his boxing profession on the age of 16 in 2011 and claimed his first Japanese nationwide title in 2018. He additionally competed in wrestling when he was a highschool scholar.

He made a long-lasting impression on his followers and fellow boxers final 12 months when he devoted himself to repairing his health club in Kagoshima Prefecture, which was broken by torrential rains.

In July of 2020, over 70 individuals in Japan’s southwestern prefecture on Kyushu island died in flooding and landslides. Over 75,000 residents of Kumamoto and Kagoshima prefectures have been compelled to evacuate.

Operating machines on the health club in Kanoya, Kagoshima Prefecture, have been broken by intensive flooding. Along with serving to with the precise cleanup, Okazawa arrange a crowdfunding marketing campaign to boost cash.

Okazawa’s success has come underneath the steering of the health club’s head coach Shunya Aratake, who took the boxer in after he graduated from Chuo College.

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Aiming to Encourage

Now, Okazawa mentioned he needs to encourage the individuals of Kagoshima Prefecture with a robust efficiency in Tokyo.

“I need to present them which you could accomplish something for those who maintain wanting ahead and provides it your all,” Okazawa mentioned. “I need to present them a very good scene by standing on the rostrum.”

The Bangkok 2019 Asian Elite Boxing Championships was his first worldwide competitors out of Japan. He defeated three robust opponents, together with Jordan’s Asian Video games bronze medalist Zeyad Eshaish and China’s Olympian Maimaitituersun Qiong, at that occasion. 

Okazawa superior to the ultimate of the continental occasion and received a silver medal following a slim loss to Uzbekistan’s Bobo-Usmon Baturov.

Okazawa received two bouts on the 2019 AIBA World Boxing Championships to achieve the quarterfinals, the place eventual silver medalist Pat McCormack of England stopped him.

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Final March, Okazawa certified for the Tokyo Olympics via the Asian & Oceanian Olympic Boxing Qualifying Occasion in Amman, Jordan.

Boxing on the Tokyo Video games will probably be contested on the famed Ryogoku Kokugikan Enviornment, which is the primary venue for sumo wrestling in Japan.

World No. 1 welterweight and 2018 Commonwealth Video games gold medalist McCormack will probably be Okazawa’s greatest rival in Tokyo. McCormack owns a 64-10 report (three knockouts) as an newbie fighter, so Okazawa can have his work lower out for him.

The boys’s welterweight ultimate is on Tuesday, August 3.

Olympic Boxing Historical past Dates to 1904

Boxing has been contested at each Summer season Olympics since its introduction to this system on the 1904 Summer season Video games in St. Louis, Missouri. The 2008 Summer season Video games in Beijing have been the final video games with boxing as a male-only sport.

Because the 2012 London Video games, ladies’s boxing has been a part of this system. Boxing on the 2020 Video games would be the most gender-equal competitors ever, with two further ladies’s weight divisions added to this system permitting 100 ladies to compete in Tokyo. 

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Japan’s Ryota Murata was one of many large tales of the London Olympics when he received the middleweight title to grow to be solely the second Japanese man to say a gold medal in Olympic boxing. Takao Sakurai was the primary, capturing the bantamweight title on the 1964 Tokyo Video games. Japan has earned 5 medals, together with three bronze, in Olympic competitors through the years.

The Worldwide Olympic Committee in June 2019 dominated to maintain the game on the Video games program after deciding to strip the Worldwide Boxing Affiliation of its proper to supervise the game in Tokyo on account of a sequence of scandals.

Sadly, not all of the world’s greatest boxers will probably be competing in Tokyo.

Quite a few qualifying occasions for boxing on the Video games needed to be canceled as a result of coronavirus. Due to so many canceled qualifiers, rankings at tournaments, a few of which passed off way back to 2017, have been used to find out seedings to fill open slots. 

Creator: Jim Armstrong

The creator is a longtime journalist who has coated sports activities in Japan for greater than 25 years. You could find his articles here, on JAPAN Ahead.